State wants to double charter school enrollment

Posted: October 11, 2012 - 12:01am

Orlando Sentinel

The State Board of Education adopted a new strategic plan this week that envisions about 17 percent of one-time public school students attending either charters — public schools run by private groups — or using taxpayer-funded vouchers to attend private schools by the 2017-18 school year.

This year, about 9 percent of students are in charter schools or using Tax Credit or McKay scholarships.

The board’s plan touts Florida as a place where parents “have the freedom to choose the educational path that is right for their child” and hopes more than 300 new charter schools will open in the next six years.

Charter schools have grown significantly in Florida, with more than 61,000 students on charter school waiting lists last year, according to numbers reported to the Florida Department of Education.

But like voucher programs, they remain controversial, with some critics saying they operate with too little oversight, sometimes benefit private, for-profit managers and siphon money away from traditional schools.

About 150 Florida charter schools have closed over the years, some after running into serious academic or financial problems.

“Instead of setting arbitrary goals that have nothing to do with need or proven results,” the state board “should make it their mission to improve public education for the 90 percent of all students who attend traditional Florida public schools,” said Kathleen Oropeza, an Orlando mother and founder of the group Fund Education Now, which has sued the state over what it calls inadequate school funding..

The board’s focus, Oropeza wrote in an email, should be on “investing in classroom technology, high-quality professional development for teachers and alternatives to high stakes testing.”

The board has no direct control over whether charter schools open, but it does hear appeals from charter operators who are denied approval by a local school board. In May, the board overruled the decisions of five local school boards that had turned down charters they thought fell short of standards, irritating local educators.

In St. Johns County, two downstate charter school companies withdrew their plans to create three charter schools after criticism from the School Board, administration, teacher and parent groups. One charter school planned to build a K-8 school and a high school and the other planned to open a K-5 school. Neither company said where they planned to locate the schools.

Parents clearly want charters, which sometimes have a particular academic focus or educational philosophy, or there wouldn’t be so many students on their waiting lists, said board member John Padget.

“This board favors more school choice for individual kids,” he added.

More and more Florida families, even those whose children remain in more traditional schools, are seeking educational choices, picking magnet and academy programs for their kids, for example, said Jon East, policy director for Step Up for Students, the scholarship funding organization that runs the tax credit program.

“What we are observing is a sea change in public education, as more and more parents tailor education to their own children’s needs,” he wrote in an email. “Both the Board of Education and the state’s top school districts are doing their best to keep pace with what parents want.”

The Tax Credit program, which aims to provide private school scholarships to students from low-income families, now serves about 49,000 students, with a waiting list of about 9,000, East said.

The board hopes that within six years the program is serving more than 100,000 youngsters while the McKay voucher program for students with disabilities is serving more than 31,000, up from about 24,000 this year.

It hopes charter school enrollment grows from nearly 180,000 this year to nearly 360,000 in six years, as the number of charter schools grows from 518 to 829.

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I am a parent, one of those you are speaking on behalf of. I have two girls in public elementary and middle schools here in St. Johns County. I have been very proud of the effort the teachers and administrators in these schools give as public servants. They have provided a solid foundation for my girls so far. The middle school has a specialized emphasis and it is public. These schools are GOOD and they are working. If you take money away from these schools in order to give it to private, out-of-state companies that have hardly any commitment to our citizens other than to find a way to make their business succeed in a subsidized market, you will be doing a major dis-service to my and your community. Please envourage your fellow boardmembers to develop more faith and pride in the people you are responsible to in your State.

I believe in my girls, in the teachers and Administrators of my county, and in giving my taxes towards public education for the benefit of my State. Unfortunately, I believe that leaders in your position, far separated from an inspired teacher in a 3rd grade class, are part of the reason that many public schools are not able to offer choices and are not serving our community as effectively and creatively as we need. Please tend to the backyard garden, not to just landscaping the front lawn to make it attractive to investors.

Private investment can stimulate creativity, however, your board has placed so much top-down control over public schools that the odds of creating simulating changes are severely anemic. Now, my tax dollars to support creativity and improvement in my public schools are being given to private investors with hardly any oversight. What makes a private investor more trustworthy with creatively using my tax dollars than local school board members, or than a vibrant public school administrator? More importantly, what are the fundamental premises on which decisions are made for students in each scenario? The answers are clear to me.

who work hard at educating our children, even when the state is doing everything it can to run public school into the ground. Charter schools have not been successful and continue to drain the budgets of public schools.
This is just another way for the state to continue to drive out our public school systems.

Wow, where is the like button to the above comments? What great things you've both said about public schools! I would encourage you to forward them to Rick Scott and members of the legislature. They need to hear from public schools parents such as yourselves.

Now... will you NE FL residents quit voting for Rick Scott, John Thrasher, and other republicans who continue to destroy public schools in the name of a profit? These board members are appointed by Rick Scott- he selected them for a reason! If we would consider preserving public education as a priority at the ballot box, then we wouldn't be accelerating so quickly towards their demise. Even Romney will be pushing charters and vouchers for public schools so fast that if you blink you'll miss it. Yet will you still vote for him, even as you sing the praises of public schools in their current form?